Unlike Google, library databases work best when you enter keywords or search strings instead of phrases or questions.
Keywords represent the main ideas and concepts in your research topic. Things to remember:
There are a few types of keywords that you can work with, depending on your topic.
Having a range of keywords can help you find many different types of information.
How do I use keywords?
You can put keywords together to search for information in library databases.
Search Order
Databases follow the commands you type in, so be aware of the order of your keywords and Boolean operators:
Truncation
Truncation is a technique that broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings.
Wildcards
Similar to truncation, wildcards substitute a symbol for one letter of a word.
Search History
In many databases you can view your search history. This is important because it can keep you from duplicating an unsuccessful search, allow you to combine searches, and track your successful search attempts.
You can also set up alerts so the database will alert you to new articles/resources that match one of your searches.